Wait a second. Didn’t Trump basically write his own physical exam findings and have his personal physician sign-off on it? Isn’t that more relevant that his uncle’s teaching status. C’mon, CNN, give credit where it’s due!
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I’d go with Dr Feelgood before Dr Trump.
beat me to it…
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You shouldn’t call the doctor if you can’t afford the bill but I have a sneakin’ suspicion that that ain’t the way to behave if you don’t want to prove your stupidity
Still is.
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… which prompts the question, did Trump’s uncle buy his way into MIT?
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That tweet sure aged well.
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slightly more adjacent to prosperity gospel. it’s not hereditary like nobility, it’s that they ( and their family ) are successful and their success comes because they are morally right
mit in this case isn’t about knowledge per se, it’s acknowledgment of an idea that only smart, capable people go there. it’s not what they learn there that matters, it’s their inherent smartness
similar to how bill barr dismissed the need for proof of voter fraud by saying it’s common sense. facts and knowledge don’t matter if you’re smart and clever enough. ( experts don’t matter. what these successful people say that matter. )
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I’d go with Dr. Pepper before Dr. Trump.
If Dr. Pepper is busy, I’m completely cool with Dr. Teeth
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This isn’t the first time Trump has cited his uncle - brace yourselves, and under no circumstances should you try parsing the train (wreck) of thought that produced this:
“Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.”
19 July 2016
(Donald Trump's 'Nuclear' Speech | Snopes.com if you are worried it was a parody. It’s not - and now you’re really worried)
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He looks legit - worked at the MIT Rad Lab during World War II, several awards.
TIL: when Nikola Tesla died in 1943, he was called in to examine his belongings to see if there was anything that could be hazardous in unfriendly hands (there wasn’t).
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Redfield has done a disgracefully bad job with COVID-19, yet he’s still better than Trump. That’s how low the bar has become.
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Looks like he got his BS from my alma mater (now folded into NYU).
While it’s good to highlight how profoundly out of depth Trump is on these issues, sadly Redfield is also a bit of a turd. It’s kind of like comparing a giant festering pile of shit that’s been left out in the humid sun to fill with maggots to a modestly-sized pile of dried-out shit.
For more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/politics/cdc-redfield-aids-walter-reed-army-investigation/index.html
Excerpted, emphasis added:
This is not the first time Redfield has been at the heart of a controversy over the government’s response to a virus epidemic. In the early 1990s, Redfield, then one of the Army’s top AIDS researchers, was at the center of a scandal over a purported HIV vaccine. Allegations that Redfield oversold data and cherry-picked results sparked an internal Army investigation into his work.
The Army ultimately did not charge Redfield with scientific misconduct. But interviews with former colleagues with direct knowledge of the investigation, and a review of internal documents suggest Redfield knew he was misrepresenting the data behind the vaccine, even as he publicly touted its results— an effort that ultimately helped garner millions in federal funds for further testing.
Redfield was also found to be in violation of Army code over his relationship with a conservative AIDS nonprofit run by a prominent evangelical activist who has promoted abstinence-only solutions to the disease
Guess who was Redfield’s assistant during the above scandal?
Why, none other than Dr. Deborah Birx!
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And not just that, because while proximity to authority is “good” (my uncle is a doctor), actual authority is “bad” (that research scientist is part of the deep state).
They always want to have it both ways. Ivy League elitism is bad. Except when Trump gets to cite that he went to Wharton.
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The herd mentality of his followers is what allows him to think that herd mentality is the solution for COVID.
Hey, that’s a good point. I never thought of that perspective before but it makes sense, filtered through the lens of would-be feudalism. Heh. Damn if it doesn’t FEEL right: a bunch of petty aristocrats all clamoring to be noticed by the king by acting as arrogant and entitled as His Majesty. “Who is more royal?”
Y’know, there’s a nice little master’s thesis in sociology or even poly-sci in there if anyone cares to write it. Shit and sunshine, I’ll bet the resemblances are almost a hundred percent all down the list. “Pseudo-feudalism.” Hmm, “crypto-feudalism”?
Yell ya what, Fuzzy. I’m a college teacher with a master’s in Rhet/Comp. I’ve been looking for a subject for a dissertation in comparative rhetorics. If I can find one-to-one correspondence in the rhetorics of feudalism versus post-modern politics and then publish it, I’ll give ya a shout-out in the bib. Deal?
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Actually, I think Fuzzy’s thesis is closer. Consider: the New Aristocrats are each trying to build their own dynasties by avoiding taxes and other regulations designed to prevent generational wealth. Their children are spoiled, elite, useless from a utilitarian perspective, willfully ignorant–they learn only what is necessary for them to rule–and utterly entitled. I should know, I taught these children writing and rhetoric at a major US university for three years. I felt like Plato teaching the teenage wannabe knights of the equestrian class of ancient Rome. Those little punks were convinced of their superiority and fitness to rule; like a bunch of cocky French aristocrats, circa 1500.
Sure it’s prosperity gospel–but we have to remember that the evangelical streak only touches about 1-3% of these New Aristocrats. Most of them are pretty mainstream, religiously speaking. French aristocrats were in the same position during the Second Empire under Bonaparte: lots of rank and prestige but privileges’ granted only by exclusive fiat of the King.
Dang, Gatto, step back and look at the big picture. It’s a historical re-run: same primitive shit we went through centuries ago. Kind of tiring, innit? Don’t these effin’ petty princes ever study history?
Apparently not…
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Did he avoid it? I thought he was awarded a Purple Head.
